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Candidate still holds office in New York

Ronnie McLean also was registered to vote there and here until a few months ago, an elections official says.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published August 31, 2006

Hernando County Commission candidate Ronnie C. McLean put on his resume that he once held elected office in New York.

Problem is, he still does.

In fact, until June 7, he was registered to vote in both states, said Supervisor of Elections Annie Williams.

McLean denies it.

He told the Times on Tuesday that he resigned his New York fire commission seat after his wife died in 2004, when he moved to Florida. Williams said Wednesday that McLean told her that he resigned the first of this year.

Daniel Markham, vice chairman of the Roosevelt Fire District in Long Island, N.Y., said Wednesday that McLean did indeed fax a letter to the commission telling them he intended to resign - on Tuesday afternoon.

Told that McLean had moved to Florida, Markham said it was the first he'd heard of it. "I had no knowledge that he planned to resign until, oh, about seven hours ago," Markham said Wednesday afternoon.

McLean responded, saying, "This is misleading statements, and innuendos and gossip. I'm not going to bow out of the race. I'm not going to be threatened by the press and the St. Petersburg Times."

It's unclear what laws, if any, McLean has violated. That question stumped the Departments of State in both New York and Florida.

* * *

This all started with McLean's outgoing voicemail message. McLean said he's in the process of building a house, and encountered several delays, making it difficult for people to get in touch with him. He gave the Times a Long Island cell phone number.

Last week, he didn't pick up a call. Instead, callers heard, "You have reached the Roosevelt Fire District, message center for Ronnie [unintelligible] McLean."

A call to the Roosevelt Fire District, which is in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, N.Y., found that the district, too, maintained a voicemail box for fire Commissioner Ronnie McLean. The Web site for the Association of Fire Districts for Nassau County still listed him as a commissioner. And the 2006 Nassau County Directory of Fire Services, updated annually, listed McLean as well.

Confronted with this information Tuesday, McLean said he hadn't changed his voicemail since he moved to Florida more than two years ago.

"I still hold some responsibilities," he said.

But he wasn't a commissioner, he said. He had resigned.

Pressed for a fuller explanation, McLean said, "You guys keep digging. Try to find whatever you can find. See if you can find any dirt. My record is impeccable. Whatever you guys say, you are trying to destroy me out there in the public. It's a shame."

McLean said he didn't have a copy of his resignation letter because all of his papers were still in storage in New York. "It's part of my community responsibility to make sure everything is running well until they hold an election this year."

McLean said he did not vote or participate as a commissioner.

"Absolutely not the case," Markham said. McLean has indeed been voting at commission meetings in the last two years, participating in decisions about the district's $1.4-million budget.

"I had no knowledge he was resigning, and I am positive that none of us knew that," Markham said.

The fire commission will have to vote to accept McLean's resignation at its next meeting and then a special election will be held to fill the seat, Markham said.

In fact, the district has been paying for the Long Island cell phone McLean has been using, Markham said.

On Wednesday afternoon, that number was out of service.

* * *

The Roosevelt Fire District comprises 1 square mile, and sits a little less than an hour's drive northeast of Manhattan.

Like the Spring Hill Fire District here, the commission sets a budget and levies taxes. The taxes are collected by the Town of Hempstead tax receiver, the same way the Hernando County Tax Collector gets the tax money for Spring Hill's district.

Also like Spring Hill, the five Roosevelt commissioners don't get paid. Each serves a five-year term, with one member up for election each year. McLean's term was to expire at the end of 2007, Markham said.

But unlike Spring Hill, Roosevelt doesn't answer to a County Commission. An investigation last year by the Long Island newspaper Newsday found that there's very little state or local oversight of the fire districts. That means the Hempstead town clerk and the Nassau County clerk didn't keep an official list of elected Fire District commissioners.

Neither did the Nassau County Board of Elections.

McLean said Wednesday: "Whatever you print, be prepared to back it up, because I'm not going to have anybody slandering my name."

McLean is in a three-way Democratic primary for Hernando County's District 2 commission seat, currently held by Nancy Robinson. He is running against Hubert "Wayne" Dukes and Rose Rocco. The primary election is Tuesday.

McLean said the Times is "vindictive" and trying to chase him out of the race. He said the newspaper had better have signed, sworn statements from Markham. "Just make sure whatever you print is correct, accurate and truthful. If you don't have what you need to back it up, I will deal with it from there."

Markham responded, "If he wants to go toe-to-toe on this issue, it's not going to go well for him. He found the wrong one. What he needs is to find a hole in the ground and hide in it."

* * *

Hernando Supervisor of Elections Williams said she doesn't know whether McLean broke the law, but she's called the Florida Division of Elections to find out.

Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Florida Department of State, said Tuesday that it's an odd case, and the first time he's heard of such a thing. The department's legal staff was unable to find an answer by Wednesday afternoon.

Similarly, the New York Department of State was stumped. Spokesman Emon Moynihan said the best answer he could get is that the state requires that a fire commissioner be a resident of the fire district he serves.

Williams said she's going to look into how McLean was registered to vote in two states at once. The Nassau County Board of Elections in New York told her McLean hadn't voted since 2002, but remained on the active rolls until June 7.

He registered to vote in Hernando County in February 2005. If he signed the voter registration form swearing residency in Florida when that wasn't true, that could be a third-degree felony, Williams explained.

McLean said, "God is going to sort it out, this kind of thing, because I'm not going to take your threats."

Ivey said: "Well, tell him, before God has a chance, the voters might have a say."

Times researcher Angie Holan contributed to this report. Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127.

[Last modified August 30, 2006, 23:53:50]